James Woke Up
by Domitan
Summary: A sequel to "Hermione Woke Up", a previous fanfic that I wrote. Follows Hermione and James as they set off to help Harry defeat Voldemort post HBP. ***Just realised I posted Chapter 3 as Chapter 2...sorry! Very confusing. Just fixed, please try again! And sorry I didn't explain how James got there :( That was kind of the exciting part!
1. Chapter One: the beginning

In the months leading up to Iggy's birth, Hermione had become obsessed with the Potter family. She spent all her free time researching them. It was there that she learned about the Peverell brothers and the Deathly Hallows. She still wasn't quite sure that the Hallows were real, but she was pretty sure that the Peverell's were. Based on Harry's infamous Invisibility Cloak and how eerily it resembled the cloak in the story, Hermione surmised that the Potters were descended directly from Ignotus Peverell. Hermione had spent all of her waking time thinking about James. She still did, even now that Iggy was almost 3 years old. Hermione was doing very well at the Norse Ministry of Magic. In fact, she was gearing up to be its next Minister for Magic, the youngest ever, when the current Minister retired. Still, she was lonely. Iggy was a fantastic kid, inquisitive like his mother and naturally athletic like his father. He had unruly jet black hair and brilliant blue eyes, always quick to notice new details. Of course, that meant he was a bit of a handful. He was always getting into things he shouldn't, and Hermione spent at least half of her day chasing him down and trying to keep him out of trouble.

The Greenland Ministry of Magic was quite forward thinking, and Iggy got to spend his days at work with his mother. There were playrooms on each floor of the building where kids could go and play. Each office of a parent who had a young child was equipped with such amenities as a change table, play pen, and a little kitchen area where they could prepare meals and eat together. All in all, not a bad place to work. Children went away to school at the age of 9 in Greenland, and the school was located in the south of Greenland, close to the Ministry. It was, of course, much smaller than Hogwarts, but Greenland was actually home to quite a number of wizarding families, since no one else wanted to live there. Because it was so isolated, it was also home to a lot of wizarding research. Wizards who wanted time and space to work on intriguing, far-fetched ideas or improvements upon present spells and charms or who were full to bursting with ideas to improve wizarding life all lived there. Hermione enjoyed her life, but still felt like there was something missing. And that something looked remarkably like her young son.

On the night before his third birthday, Hermione found herself reminiscing about that memorable night she had spent with his father. Of course, Iggy didn't know who his father was, and he didn't much care. Hermione felt like her son was lacking in male guidance. After she put Iggy to bed, she sank onto her couch and thought about the kiss she had shared with James that had made Lily so jealous, and the wonderful night they had spent in the Room of Requirement. She realised that Lily and James must have gotten back together at some point, and that Lily had hopefully become less insipid as the years went on. Harry still existed, over on the other side of the world. Hermione at once broke into hot, wet tears. She didn't have anyone anymore. She'd had James for only one night, and because of it, she'd lost her best friends. She hadn't talked to Ron, or Harry, or Ginny, or anyone in over 3 years. That part of her life was over now, over and gone. So was the part with James. What did she even have anymore? Hermione hugged the couch pillow to her chest and sobbed into it.


	2. Chapter 2

She awoke to a swirling noise and a loud 'thunk' in front of her. Sprawled in a heap in front of her fireplace was a sooty, black-haired person. "Harry?" she exclaimed cautiously. Blue eyes blinked up at her confusedly. "_James_" she breathed. "James, is it really you? How did you get here?" The young man stood up and brushed the soot off of himself, blushing when he realised that he was getting Hermione's carpet dirty.

"Hello, Hermione. I...I don't know what to say. I..I don't really know how I got here, but..." Hermione didn't let him finish. She rushed over and embraced him. James's mouth found hers, and it felt so beautiful and sweet that she never wanted to let him go. After a few moments they broke apart. Hermione laced her fingers through his and stood, meeting his blue eyes with her own hazel ones.

"Why don't you at least try and explain what happened" urged Hermione. James took a deep breath and began.

"Well, it's been 5 years since I met you at Hogwarts" he began. Hermione looked surprised, but made an encouraging face and he continued. "Lily and I stayed together, and we got married after our last year at Hogwarts. We had a baby boy and named him..."

"Harry" mused Hermione.

"Yes, that's right, Harry. How did you know?" Hermione shook her head and urged him to continue. "Well, after Harry was born, things took a turn for the worst. Lily and I never really recovered after I met you, so we were always on shaky ground. When Harry was 1, Lily left me. Both of us were still in the Order of Phoenix. Oh right, the Order of the Phoenix...we started it right out of Hogwarts to kill Voldemort. I guess I shouldn't have told you that so flippantly...it's supposed to be a secret. Shit."

"It's OK James, I know about the Order. Keep going".

James gave her a quizzical look, but obeyed. "Well, we kept fighting him, and all of a sudden, Lily was dead. Voldemort got her. On Halloween. He just walked right up to their house in Godric's Hollow and killed her. Harry somehow escaped, but Dumbledore opted to bring him to Lily's sister's house in Surrey rather than give him to me. You see, I'm kind of on the run myself, and Dumbledore also thinks I'm irresponsible. Lily put on a good face for the Order, but things were really bad between us before she left me. She was irrational and manipulative. Kept trying to make me do things and be who she wanted me to be. I just wanted to be myself. I thought maybe we'd get back together, but then...this happened. Also, I could never quite get you out of my mind. After he tried to kill Harry, Voldemort kind of just disappeared. So, I took a job working at Hogwarts as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. I've been doing that for a year or so, but it's hard to be back there, you know. So many...memories. For the past few months, I've been trying to find the room...you know, _our_ room. I finally found it. And in that room was a giant fireplace. At first I thought that I had found the wrong room, but something told me that it was right. And that fireplace kept drawing me towards it. There was a little jar of neon green powder on the mantelpiece. I figured it was Floo Powder. I dumped some in the fireplace, said your name, and here I am!" Hermione looked at James, agape.

"Well," she said, "Let me tell you what's been going on with me. I don't know if you've realised this at all, but you're actually in the future. When I came to visit you at Hogwarts, I just woke up one morning having gone back in time. When I was gone the next day, I was back here again. I finished off at Hogwarts, but couldn't stay in Britain because of, well, because I was pregnant and didn't want my friends to know."

"Pregnant? And not in Britain? Where are we?" James looked confused and somewhat panicked.

"I had a baby just after graduation, and I named him Ignotus, after Ignotus Peverell, the original owner of your Invisibility Cloak. He goes by Iggy, and it's his third birthday tomorrow. I couldn't stay in Britain because I was best friends with your and Lily's son Harry at Hogwarts." James looked utterly shocked, but didn't say anything. "Harry has spent the past seven years trying to beat Voldemort, but he hasn't managed to yet. Voldemort came back in our fourth year at Hogwarts, and he's been trying to take over since then. I'm actually manager of the Auror department at the Norse Ministry of Magic. We're in Greenland right now. So far as I know, Harry is still out in the field trying to track Voldemort down. I don't know how close he is to finishing the job, but we have a few Aurors out there trying to track him down. We mean to help him, if we can find him."

"My son," James smiled. "Probably has a lot of his mother's brains."

"And his father's courage," added Hermione. "He always talked about you and Lily. You were his inspiration. He thinks you're dead though. Dumbledore told him that Voldemort killed both of you before trying to kill him. He never knew that you guys split up."

James looked grateful. "I feel bad, but really it was for the best. Lily and I never would have made it. I should never have tried to pursue her...she was so against it in the first place, and then she just...changed once we actually got together." The pair sat in silence for a few minutes, both trying to process the information with which they had been presented. After a while, James said, "Can I see him? Iggy?" Hermione nodded and took James down the hall to Iggy's room. James padded silently up to the little bed and gazed at Iggy, who was sleeping fitfully. "He looks just like me!" James exclaimed in a whisper.

"So does Harry," Hermione said. "But he's got Lily's eyes."

James stood up and walked back to Hermione. "What do we do now?" he asked.

"Well, you can stay here while we figure out what to do, I guess." Hermione said. She looked at James and bit her lip. "You know how you said that you couldn't stop thinking about me after I left? Well, I couldn't stop thinking about you either. These past few years have been...rough. I really missed you, you know. I know we don't know each other that well, but, if you're up for it, you can just stay here. With me. And Iggy." James grinned, and pulled Hermione towards him by the waist.

"I think that sounds like a good idea. I missed you too, Hermione." Hermione reached up and pulled his face down to hers, and the pair embraced for the second time that night. Hermione felt complete again.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Hermione woke up, thinking everything had been a dream. She was scared to look at the pillow beside her, but was overjoyed to see James's sleeping form draped awkwardly, yet comfortably, on his side of the bed. Hermione kissed his nose gently and went to the kitchen, wrapped in her bathrobe. She pulled out the frying pan and started slicing bread for French toast, Iggy's favourite breakfast. Soon enough, Iggy marched down the hall in his Chudley Cannons pyjamas. "Happy Birthday, little man!" Hermione exclaimed, swooping down to pick up her son. She kissed him all over his face, despite his protests, then sat him down in his booster seat at the table. She waved her wand at the stove and set the French toast in motion. As it was cooking, she went to the hall closet to get out the presents she had wrapped the week before. Iggy clapped his hands with delight as she set them down before him. "Now just you wait, Mr. Iggy. We have another guest who wants to watch you open your presents." Iggy looked confused. "It's all right. I'm going to go get him".

Hermione roused James gently. "Wake up, James" she whispered into his ear. "Come to breakfast. I made Iggy wait to open his presents until you got there." James groaned and rolled over. Unfortunately, he rolled the wrong way and landed with a flop on the floor. Hermione laughed and bent down to kiss him. James tickled her as she was leaning down and the two of them burst out laughing. With a grin, James stood up and tried to calm his messy hair. Hermione giggled.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Harry has the same problem, so does Iggy. Your hair is just crazy in the morning. I think Harry told me a story once about a mirror that told him to stop fighting a losing battle." Why was she thinking so much about Harry lately? She pushed him to the back of her mind and led James to the kitchen, where Iggy was banging on the table impatiently. "Here's our guest, honey bunches!" Iggy looked up at James, and a confused look overtook his face.

"He looks...like me? Why does he look like me?"

Hermione had to admit that the pair did look alike. "Well, Iggy, this is your dad. His name is James. He came over last night because he wanted to help celebrate your birthday."

"Dad? I didn't know I even _had_ a dad!"

Hermione chuckled. "Of course, you do, silly goose! Everyone has a dad!"

"Even you, mum?"

"Yes, even me. Now, why don't you say hello to your dad, and we'll all eat breakfast."

After the breakfast dishes had been cleared, Hermione got herself and Iggy ready to go to work. She directed James to a haphazard pile of old Daily Prophets ("I get them delivered so I know what's going on back home" she had explained. "It takes the owls a few days to get here, but I don't mind.") and popped out the door.

Work that day was fairly uneventful. Hermione was overseeing the practical examinations of a new batch of Aurors, straight out of Harstaand, the Greenland equivalent of Hogwarts. They were doing well so far, and today was tracking day. Each of the recruits managed to find the 'missing' person (it was really Hermione's secretary, who had to find successfully harder hiding places within the Ministry with each recruit) within a few hours. The last recruit, however, found him after 10 minutes. Impressed, Hermione asked how he had done it. The recruit, a muggle-born like Hermione, explained how he had managed to combine the concept of DNA with a Searching spell. It worked much better than any other searching spell Hermione had encountered, so she insisted that the recruit teach her. She tried it out first on Iggy, who happened to be fooling around in the Inter-Office Memo room, sending scribbles off this way and that. Hermione hauled him, protesting, back to the playroom. Needless to say, that particular recruit passed the exam with flying colours.

Hermione didn't give much thought to the search spell for a few months. Over those months, Iggy and James got to know each other better, and so did Hermione. She and James realised that, despite their mutual affection for each other, they didn't actually know each other very well. The time difference between them also put a strain on their relationship. James had a hard time accepting the fact that his son was an adult, and that he thought his father dead. Hermione was sad for James and the fact that he and Lily had had such a troubled relationship. James himself was still trying to process that period in his life, especially now that Hermione was back in it. Despite all their setbacks and trials, the couple grew closer and closer, and the three of them felt like a little family now. For a while, James had slept on the couch in the living room, needing some time to adjust. Now, he and Hermione were sharing a room, and a bed, which they both delighted in waking up in every morning and discovering that the other person was still there.

One day, James mentioned that he was interested in joining the hunt for Harry. Hermione nodded, thought for a moment, then jumped up, hitting her forehead with her hand at the same time. "How could I have forgotten!?" she exclaimed. Then she rushed into her bedroom and reached for a box under her bed. She blew the dust off of the top and opened it. She rummaged around for a few minutes, then found what she was looking for: a little sachet cinched shut with a gold ribbon. James, who had followed her, asked what it was. "I just remembered that I had saved a little bit of Harry's, Ron's, and Ginny's hair should I ever need a quick disguise." When James looked at her quizzically, Hermione grinned. "We got pretty good at Polyjuice Potion after our first year" she said mischievously. James looked impressed. As she pulled out a small shock of jet black hair, Hermione explained the story about the new Auror and his search spell.

"Let me see if I remember how he did it..." Hermione pulled out her wand, a quill, and a large piece of parchment. She muttered a few words under her breath, holding her wand like a compass on her forefinger after scattering the hair on the parchment. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the quill began sketching lines on the parchment. It began to move faster and faster, sketching out a map of a forest in Northern Ireland. A tiny dot labelled "Harry Potter" began to move slowly across the page. Hermione squealed in delight that the spell had worked. "I can't believe it! After more than two years of searching for Harry, I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner!" James's eyes followed the dot as it kept moving around on the map.

Over the next few days, Hermione and James experimented with the map. They couldn't make it show any other people, but they were able to develop a sub-spell that allowed them to zoom in and out of the map, giving them a clearer idea of where to find Harry. The next step was to figure out when. And how. What would they do with Iggy? They couldn't very well drag him along. And yet, both Hermione and James felt like they _needed_ to be part of this quest, the quest to end Voldemort once and for all.


End file.
